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On September 24, 2017, I woke up to the news that my company had received $1,002,738, officially crossing the seven-figure yearly mark in gross revenue. It was a day I had dreamed of, but also one I knew was coming.

As my company continues to experience significant growth, I'm told there is lot about the inner workings of my life and business that is unconventional. Here are five surprising business decisions I've made that may inspire your business journey.

1. Be your own assistant.

I pretended to be my own assistant for a very long time. In the weeks after my business crossed the $1 million mark, I finally “killed off” my assistant. For several years prior, I answered the vast majority of the questions that ended up in our customer support email inbox. Though I had developed a solid team, I wanted to respond to clients the way only I would. I signed my responses off with the name Ali. "Ali" breathed her last breath when I made a very public announcement to my Facebook community in November 2017 exposing that I had made her up completely.

My advice to new entrepreneurs is to get deeply involved in your business. Do the work yourself when it matters the most. When it's time, let it go and trust others to help you.

2. Keep email off your phone.

You'd expect someone who is running a company that is highly reliant on technology to have social media and email notifications popping up on their phone all the time, but I refuse. I turned social media notifications off years ago, and six months ago I finally removed email from my phone.

The truth is that you will be more effective if you purposefully sign on to social media or log into your email, do what you have to do and sign off quickly. There is no reason to be distracted by it all day.

3. Shift your mindset from 'entrepreneur' to 'CEO.'

Having bootstrapped my entire business from the beginning with no mentor, investor or team, I figured out how to do a lot of things myself. Via YouTube videos and a significant number of Google searches on coding, marketing, branding, messaging and graphic design, I taught myself.

While I've built a very reliable team over the years, I still kept some of my solopreneur habits. I would take on too much myself. I'd force things to come together at the last minute and congratulate myself for managing to pull it off all on my own. But within the past year, I've finally transitioned into thinking more like the CEO of my business.

This means holding the vision, setting expectations and letting other people do their jobs well. You can be proud of what you learned and achieved as an entrepreneur doing it all on your own, and also be thrilled to pass it all down to your team. Often, you'll find that they do the work better than you could.

It is important to develop trust in those you hire. Remember, you can't do it all. You aren't supposed to be able to do it all. And, truly, you don't want to do it all. Allow yourself to be supported.

4. Traditional funding isn't the only right answer.

What does a 25-year-old graduate school student living on student loans have as a resource to start a business? A credit card. From the beginning of my business I believed in keeping expenses low. However, early on, there were some expenses I could not afford. I believe strongly in using all resources and tools at my disposal, so I used credit cards to fund my business. This meant carrying balances on credit cards for a time. Because I had a vision and knew this was temporary, I decided not to make credit card debt a big deal. I focused my energy on earning more than I could ever spend. Today, I have zero credit card debt, and I do not regret my decision to use the resources available to me.

Ignore the rules, and do what works for and makes sense to you. It doesn't matter who says it isn't wise or business savvy. You have the unique insight for the business that you desire to bring to the world. You have to trust your own intuition.

5. Eschew financial projections and industry standards.

For a business to make great leaps in income, it requires looking at numbers, setting goals and running calculations. I decided I'd never allow myself to be limited by numbers, projections or practicalities. I've seen paralysis, self-doubt and overwhelm take over when an entrepreneur can't see a logical way to meet their financial goals.

My advice is this: Look at the numbers, and ignore them. Numbers are just numbers. They only have the power over your business that you give them. You can turn any unfortunate-looking calculation into something great. Treat low bank balances, dips in recurring revenue or an unpaid invoice as nothing more than motivation to defy the odds. After all, that's what visionaries do.

A lot of people who don't have what you want will attempt to tell you a lot of things about business. It doesn't matter. It's your job as an entrepreneur to make your own rules and discover your own way. It's my intention that these insights into my business expand what you believe to be possible for you as you design a life and business you are wildly obsessed with.